Quick Tip: How to close apps in iOS 8

A question we see regularly in our iOS help forums is related to quitting apps. The process changed in iOS 7, with the introduction of Apple’s new way of handling multitasking. While different, it’s still incredibly easy to force quit or kill apps that are misbehaving. Here’s how to close apps in iOS 8.

In iOS, double-clicking the home button will bring up the multitasking, which is essentially a collection of ‘running apps’. With previous versions of iOS, you would have to tap and hold an icon. Your icons would start wiggling and you could tap on the minus sign to close them. If you are still running an iOS device with iOS 6 or lower, that method still works.

Close Apps in iOS 8

When you double-click on the home button in iOS 8, you’ll see a new webOS style cards view. The old method of tapping and holding the icon will not work. Instead, to close apps in iOS 8 (and this also applies to iOS 7), you simply flick the card up. Flicking or dragging up will work. My personal favorite is flicking as it provides me with a sense of power. Get out of here app.

Why Quit Apps in iOS 8?

People tend to quit apps in hopes of better battery life, something we’ve covered in detail in our how-to guide on improving battery life in iOS 8. Open apps in previous versions of iOS didn’t have any effect on battery life. They were in a paused state. Apple’s new intelligent updates changes things a bit. Apps can now access data in the background, if they are enabled under Background Refresh. You can disable these apps by entering Settings > General > Background App Refresh.

If an app is behaving badly or has become problematic, that’s a perfectly good reason to quit the app. Engage multitasking and flick away.

Quitting apps is one of the changes that while different, is a nice improvement.

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